The spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams, has commented that faith communities had to promote confidence as well as earn the trust of those around them, so that they could tackle the common problems of the world.

The Archbishop of Canterbury was speaking at a dinner in Washington during a Christian-Muslim conference. He spoke about the problems that all were facing, and highlighted that their coming together meant that differences had to been addressed seriously but that these differences should be viewed as common challenges.

Dr Williams stated, “We have recognised that we have a common agenda; we can't always say that we have identical convictions and certainly aren’t aiming to iron out the differences and the difficulties of our convictions but this is a world in which no one religious community, no one nation, no one interest group can solve problems alone...

“The ecological crisis that our planet faces is one that is no respecter of religious difference and there is one planet on which we live, global warming is theologically uneducated; rising water levels do not discriminate between Christians, Muslims, Jews or anyone else.”